Rs 5.24-cr subsidy given for crop residue mgmt

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, November 20

Under a special campaign of the Punjab Government, the Department of Agriculture, Mansa, has provided subsidy worth Rs 5.24 crore to farmers of the district to purchase machinery for crop residue management and direct sowing.

In a release issued here, GS Sidhu, Chief Agricultural Officer, Mansa, said till date, the Agriculture Department had provided 435 and 292 happy seeders to individual farmers and farmers groups, respectively, on subsidy. For 2018-19, the department had provided 75 paddy choppers, 19 mulchers, 27 hydraulic reversible plough, 266 zero-till drill, 135 super SMS and 27 rotavators to farmers on subsidy. The government had disbursed subsidy to the tune of Rs 5.20 crore to individual farmers and Rs 3.70 lakh to farmer groups. The subsidy amount had been credited to the bank accounts of the farmers directly.

Elaborating further, Sidhu said the department had organised 1,200 technical camps at village level under a special campaign to sensitise farmers about the detrimental effects of stubble burning and the benefits of direct sowing of crops. “The department has also flagged off five mobile vans in villages of different blocks to educate farmers,” he stated. In order to make the campaign successful, they had distributed 32,000 leaflets and 8,000 pamphlets among the farmers and wrote slogans on the walls of 15 villages adjacent to the GT road, he claimed.

The Chief Agricultural Officer further said about 50 exhibitions had been organised in the fields to provide direct information to farmers regarding the use of aforesaid machines in every block of the district. Subsequently, the incidents of stubble burning had decreased drastically as compared to the last year. He said farmers equipped with technical knowhow had sown rabi crops 15 per cent more with happy seeder this year. With the help of these machines, 75 per cent area had been sown till date, whereas last year, about 60 per cent of sowing was done. He said commendation certificates had also been given to 200 farmers who had shunned the practice of burning paddy stubble. Two more camps would be organised in the near future in the remaining two tehsils of the district.

As the yield of cotton in the district had been very good, he hoped the area under cotton cultivation would increase by about 20 per cent during kharif season 2019, which would be helpful in residue management, Sidhu added.